Thursday, January 01, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Music: All in the family

Smoky Mountain Skullbusters celebrate the ties that bind

By Mike Prevatt

When you hear Tempe, Ariz.-based band Smoky Mountain Skullbusters play its song, "Godamngeles," you hear the typical 4/4 punk drum beat, the typical three chords, the harmonically shouted chorus and peculiar guitar solo snaking through the song. It's the latter element that reveals, in its own way, the poeticism of the band's everyman ethos, which usually focuses on more of the downs than the ups.

"That song, that's [guitarist] Dylan's version of his angst," says SMSB lead singer Mike Roberts. "He grew up in Orange County, Calif. All he used to talk about was when he was a kid, he would ride [his] bike to the beach...and when he goes back now, he's very angry at the way it's become overpopulated and overrun, and there's garbage everywhere and things that used to be cool are now gang sites--the way everything's gone shitty in a place that he loved. He's angry, and that's the only song he sings; live, he puts down the guitar. He's just got much feeling for that, sitting on the 405 [freeway], backed up. We even have alternative lyrics where he goes to the beach, but there's a bacteria warning, and he just ends up standing in line at the gym to walk on the treadmill."

Now, before you write off SMSB as another Staind-like downer band, consider that these guys aren't disciples of modern-day mope rock--they're too raw to be Linkin Park, and too irreverent to be Saves the Day. Rather, they embrace the power chord glory of the `70s, and the breakneck punk abrasion of the late `70s and early `80s, which is to say they like their music loud, simple, unadorned, tough and bullshit-free. The quartet wears its influences and its heart on its sleeve, reflecting the connection between members, mostly in correlation to their past and how they relate to each other.

But it most notably encapsulates the aggravations of being a normal Joe in an increasingly complicated world. If SMSB's songs don't spell it out with details, or aren't to be taken literally, its music provokes its listener to either recall their own frustrations, or revel in the material's broader emotional themes, such as discontent, anger and internal violence.

"We have a song called 'Fuck Off and Die,' and that's the only lyric in the song," says Mike. "Everybody in the world has stood in line at the convenience store watching some fucking idiot take two hours to get cigarettes and be like, what the fuck? That's the whole point. This is a natural fucking human emotion--do you get it? And if you do, yell it with us."

The 2 1/2-year-old band--which released an album independently two months ago called Viva La Hell--may sound grisly, but with its musical documenting of daily tribulations comes its celebration of life's simple rewards. For instance, who might've thought these four old-school punkers were so family-oriented?

"We play punk rock and it's hard, it's about hard lives...and we just want better shit for our kids like everyone else," says Mike. "We're really a family-based band. All the kids are invited to everything we do; we have kids at every function, and mothers and grandmothers. It's not a thing where there's sluts all around. We try to keep ourselves pretty based in reality. We're not into money and fur coats and bullshit."

And the more Mike breaks it down, the more endearing his otherwise fun-lovin' tribe sounds. "It's all rock 'n' roll, really," he says. "Even bands labeled punk or metal, there are certain bands that everyone loves because they fuckin' rock. We're just trying to rock. We're not trying to be cool. We're just four friends, man."